Chasing Mibu's Wolf
by foxyboy
Summary: The story takes place after the battle with Shishio... And after Kenshin realizes that Saitoh Hajime may be gone forever


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Chasing Mibu's wolf  
By [Foxyboy][1]

  
STARLESS, BGM from "Rurouni Kenshin" 

Okay, time for the highly repetitive and oftentimes irritating, AUTHORS RANT!!! Well, the location and time frame of this fanfic is exactly after the death of Shishio Makoto and the sudden disappearance of Saitoh Hajime. If any of this doesn't make sense, or if you haven't watched the series, or haven't reached until here yet, don't blame me for anything! 

He surveyed the surrounding area once, and only once. That was all that he needed to realize that there could be no possible chance of ever seeing him again. 

He couldn't possibly be alive... There was no chance that anyone could survive that... All that remained of Shishio's fortress was nothing more than ash, rubble and perhaps a few dead bodies thrown in for good measure... And perhaps, among these dead bodies, he would be counted as one. 

But, for some reason, he felt that fate should not have run it's course. 

"He can't die... Not until Hell freezes over and the devil takes up skiing..." He joked, although it didn't even bring as much as nervous laughter from his saddened lips. 

"It... It can't be the end of Mibu's wolf... it just can't..." He weakly stated as he felt his fingers slowly slipping from his weapon. How many years did they share with one another, even though these years may have never been the most pleasant or enjoyable ones? Nearly ten years of passage between the two... And nearly ten hundred sword swings against one another. 

And for what reason did his heart feel so heavy? Was it because he felt like he's lost something that's always been there for him? Even though if it was there to kill him, it seemed like such misfortune to lose someone like... Like... 

"Saitoh..." He finally said as he looked down at the charred soil and still warm embers that he stood on. He picked up a small, faintly glowing piece of wooden debris and clutched it fully in his hand. He smiled, although for reasons that he didn't understand as well. 

"It's warm... Just like blood spilled from wounds... Just like the wounds that both he and I bled for our beliefs." Strange, likening a burnt piece of architecture to the liquid that throbbed within ones entire body, the very same liquid that sustained ones breathing and life, the same liquid that sprayed the walls and earth of Kyoto ten years back. 

"Do you remember? Do you remember the way we always fought to kill one another? How we always wanted to drive one another's swords right through each other until we were claimed dead?" Stranger still, he was asking empty air. It wasn't like him to talk to things that weren't really there but it was the only thing that he could do while he viewed such miserable scenery with eyes and thoughts that never would allow him to leave. 

"And now, where are you? You're dead. Dead, not at the hands of someone. Not dead at my feet... But dead; buried underneath tons and tons of heaping, crackling wood and steel." The thought sickened him thoroughly; down deep into his bones and into his very soul. 

"It's not that I wanted to see you dead, or to see your blood splattered all over the floor and me... I never wanted that... I never did, believe me, Hajime." His hold over the ember strengthened and he felt the heat searing his skin and fingers. 

"It's just that... I never wanted to be apart from you. I didn't know how to tell you this and now that you aren't even here... Breathing or otherwise..." He crushed the piece of wood into nothing more than the equivalent of saw dust and turned his sights to the ground. Slowly, but surely, he felt his tears slowly rise and drip from his moist and cold eyes. 

"What is it are you trying to prove, Hajime!?" He yelled at the air, sending all the birds around him flying in different directions. He fell to his knees, bathing the jet-black soil with tears that he felt he should have not shed. Tears that carried with it a very strange reason for loving... 

"Why do you hurt me like this?! Tell me why, Saitoh!" He yelled even more as his tears bathed his face freely. It didn't fall in drops anymore; it fell in streams... Why so many tears for such a pain in the neck? Why so many tears for someone that you were supposed to kill from the day your eyes met? 

"Why... Why'd you have to die..." Did it have something to do with that sense of emptiness that he felt within him? After all, what is day if there is no night? 

And what is a warrior who has no opponent? 

And now, there is none, No one anymore to raise a blade against him. He roamed the surface of post-Tokugawa Japan as a Rurouni and he hoped he'd stay like that forever. But, as it was with the rest of the rules of the world, you never get what you expect. 

He walked on and on; From city, to city, to city. In this unending cycle of travelling to a place where he didn't even know was. He walke around in multiple circles, sometimes coming back to a town that he's alreay been in for more times than he could care. 

One time, he walked back into a place that he would never forget. 

And now, he is happy. In a house, no, it was a home. A home filled with people and laughter. A home filled with emotion an of love. 

A home that he freely called his own. 

But it didn't matter anymore when they met once more. When the wolf met the dragon, his entire world and sense of reason was turned upside down yet once again. 

The sword that could not cut was destined to murder. Impossible? Maybe so, but it did. 

And it did so very well. 

Everythings changed but they've still remained the same. Change... No, in reality, nothng's actually different. Nothing really changed into anything else... 

...Other than what it was suppose to be. 

"I wanted to hide the truth for so long. I wanted to deny all that I believed was wrong. It looks like I won't be able to do that, ever." His tears slowly weakened, his hands now filthy from the soot and ash. He stands up and looks once again at all the destruction... And thinks. 

"Even if it cannot cut; A sword is still a sword..."  
  
"...Even if he has stopped; a murderer is still a murderer..."  
  
"...And even if he is no longer there; Mibu's wolf is still Mibu's wolf."  
  
The truths of the world. Nothing can really be changed. Everything is all that it will ever be and nothing more... 

: : owari : : 

Ramble:  
  
1) And now you ask why Saitoh and Kenshin, huh? First off, I'm not good at writing battle sequences. (I'll leave that up to Nobuhiro Watsuki's genius!) Secondly, I understand that Kenshin and Saitoh have a very, very deep relationship with one another that surpasses the typical rivalry that they both feel for one another. I also felt that what would Kenshin be doing after losing something or someone like Mibu no Ookami?  
  
2) Any Constructive Criticisms? I know I suck at writing so I want you to help me! After all, How much could a little bit of your mentality cost?  
  
3) It's an absolutely crappy ending, I know... Believe me, I know! I sort of ran out of inspiration around halfway so... 

   [1]: Mailto:tru_blu_FY@angelfire.com



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